The impact of COVID-19 related regulations and restrictions on mobility and potential for sustained climate mitigation across the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK: A data-based commentary (original) (raw)
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Environmental Impacts of Changes in Travel Behaviour with Covid-19
Gazi University Journal of Science Part B: Art Humanities Design and Planning, 2021
During the Covid-19 pandemic, life in cities has slowed down. Many countries around the world have taken measures to reduce the spread of the epidemic. While flexible working strategy is being implemented in some workplaces, some workplaces have adopted the method of working from home online with the suitability of working conditions. Such strategies brought about by restrictions have also affected transportation, which is indispensable for societies and the most important infrastructure system of cities. Within the scope of this study, how much less damage to the environment as a result of not using private automobiles for homework travels with the strategy of working from home will be investigated with the determined sample. Information about their automobiles was obtained from the people in the sample determined by the survey method. The amount of CO₂ emitted to the environment due to homework travels was calculated and the results were evaluated.
Sustainability
The switch from working in-office to working from home in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on people’s mobility behavior. In view of the need for action arising from the ongoing challenge of climate change, these changes should be seen as an opportunity to reduce emissions in the traffic sector. The aim of this study was to analyze changes in work-related mobility that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic using the case of a multinational medium-sized retail chain situated in semi-rural Germany. The case study allowed us to examine those changes in connection with individual attitudes and perspectives of the company and its employees. Thus, we quantitatively recorded the mobility behavior of the company’s employees, followed by an expert interview to ascertain the company’s perspective. We found a reduction in the frequency of commuting and business trips made by employees, which seemed to continue beyond the COVID-19 crisis. However, according to our f...
The impact of labour market disruptions and transport choice on the environment during COVID-19
Transport Policy, 2021
Since late 2019, COVID-19 has devastated the global economy, with indirect implications for the environment. As governments' prioritized health and implemented measures such as the closure of non-essential businesses and social distancing, many workers have lost their jobs, been furloughed, or started working from home. Consequently, the world of work has drastically transformed and this period is likely to have major implications for mobility, transportation and the environment. This paper estimates the potential for people to engage in remote work and social distancing using O*NET data and Irish Census data and calculates the potential emission savings, by commuter type from a switch to remote working and occupational social distancing. The results show that while those who commute by car have a relatively high potential for remote work, they are less likely to be able to engage in social distancing in their workplace. While this may be negative for employment prospects in the short run, our analysis indicates that this pattern has the potential for positive environmental implications in the short and long run.
Department for Transport, 2021
This research aims to understand the longer term behavioural responses to Covid-19 and how they varied across different areas and different socio-economic groups. It draws on a panel survey collected by the University of Leeds and the University of Stirling across 10 areas in England and Scotland. This data set has been combined with spatial data to enable the behaviour of individuals to be connected to characteristics of their local area. This report summarises the key findings relating to work from home, grocery shopping and mode use focusing on aspects of behavioural change which are most relevant for policy makers in months ahead.
Transport Policy, 2020
The continued failure to put transport on a robust low carbon transition pathway calls for new approaches in policy and research. In studies of transport systems and patterns of mobility, established approaches to data collection, analysis and subsequent policy design have focused on capturing ‘typical’ conditions rather than identifying the potential for substantive change. This focus on the apparent aggregate stability of the transport regime has reproduced a belief in policy circles that our current travel patterns are largely fixed and therefore very difficult to alter, which in turn has resulted in an over reliance on implausible assumptions about the carbon reductions that can be achieved through technological improvements such as low emission vehicles. This paper argues that there is potentially much greater adaptive capacity in the mobility system than currently allowed for. It illustrates this potential through the investigation of actual adaptations made during a set of specific ‘disruptive’ events. The paper concludes by suggesting that we can go further in reducing the demand for travel if we broaden the scope of intervention to take a wider view of when and how mobility matters to participation in activities across the population. This research pre-dates the Covid-19 pandemic but should help inform the policy responses in a period where a step-wise return to a ‘new normal’ is enacted.
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic marked a global disruption of unprecedented scale which was closely associated with human mobility. Since mobility acts as a facilitator for spreading the virus, individuals were forced to reconsider their respective behaviors. Despite numerous studies having detected behavioral changes during the first lockdown period (spring 2020), there is a lack of longitudinal perspectives that can provide insights into the intra-pandemic dynamics and potential long-term effects. This article investigates COVID-19-induced mobility-behavioral transformations by analyzing travel patterns of Berlin residents during a 20-month pandemic period and comparing them to the pre-pandemic situation. Based on quantitative analysis of almost 800,000 recorded trips, our longitudinal examination revealed individuals having reduced average monthly travel distances by ∼20%, trip frequencies by ∼11%, and having switched to individual modes. Public transportation has suffered a continual regression, with trip frequencies experiencing a relative long-term reduction of ∼50%, and a respective decrease of traveled distances by ∼43%. In contrast, the bicycle (rather than the car) was the central beneficiary, indicated by bicycle-related trip frequencies experiencing a relative long-term increase of ∼53%, and travel distances increasing by ∼117%. Comparing behavioral responses to three pandemic waves, our analysis revealed each wave to have created unique response patterns, which show a gradual softening of individuals’ mobility related self-restrictions. Our findings contribute to retracing and quantifying individuals’ changing mobility behaviors induced by the pandemic, and to detecting possible long-term effects that may constitute a “new normal” of an entirely altered urban mobility landscape.
Global Environmental Change, 2021
Active travel (walking or cycling for transport) is generally good for health, the environment and the economy. Yet the net effects of changes in active travel on changes in mobility-related CO 2 emissions are complex and under-researched. Here we collected longitudinal data on daily travel behavior, mode choice, as well as personal and geospatial characteristics in seven European cities and derived mobility-related lifecycle CO 2 emissions from daily travel activity over time and space. Fixed-and mixed-effects modelling of longitudinal panel data (n=1849) was performed to assess the associations between changes in lifecycle CO 2 emissions and changes in transport mode use (primary exposure), main mode of travel, and cycling frequency (secondary exposures). Daily mobility-related lifecycle CO 2 emissions were 2.8 kgCO 2 per person at baseline, with car travel contributing 69% and cycling 1%. At follow-up, mobility-related lifecycle CO 2 emissions were-0.52 (95%CI-0.82 to-0.21) kgCO 2 /day lower per additional cycling trip,-0.41 (95%CI-0.69 to-0.12) kgCO 2 /day lower per additional walking trip, and-2.11 (95%CI-1.78 to-2.43) kgCO 2 /day lower per 'avoided' car trip. An average person cycling 1 trip/day more and driving 1 trip/day less for 200 days a year would decrease mobility-related lifecycle CO 2 emissions by about 0.5 tonnes over a year. Those who changed from 'not cycling' to 'cycling' decreased daily CO 2 emissions by-2.54 (95%CI-3.90 to-1.17) kgCO 2 /day. Mobilityrelated CO 2 emissions decreased by-9.28 (95%CI-11.46 to-7.11) kg/day for those who changed their 'main mode' from car, van or motorbike to active travel. Extensive sensitivity analyses by city, journey purpose and key personal characteristics largely con rmed our results. Active travel is shown to substitute for motorized travel, with signi cant climate change mitigation effects. Even if not all car trips could be substituted by active travel the potential for decreasing emissions is considerable and signi cant. Investing in and promoting active travel should therefore be a cornerstone of strategies to meet net zero carbon targets, particularly in urban areas, while also improving public health and quality of urban life. 'objective' built environment characteristics included here were (see Gascon et al., 2019 for how these
2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many aspects of human life, including mobility. In a local context, the University of Oldenburg (Germany) suspended all in-person lectures and business trips in March 2020, affecting the energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the community. This paper presents the evaluation of emissions resulting from mobility associated with the University of Oldenburg before and after the COVID-19 restrictions, including commuting and business trips. Moreover, five scenarios targeting a reduction in emissions related to mobility are proposed and analyzed. The GHG emissions were calculated using specific emissions factors for each mode of transport, distance data obtained via a survey, and official university data. Overall, the results have revealed a substantial decrease in emissions in the summer semester 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimated GHG emissions reduction relative to the average emissions of the prior two semesters (pre-COVID-19)...
How the COVID-19 pandemic changes daily commuting routines – Insights from the German Mobility Panel
Case Studies on Transport Policy
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Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on commuting: a multi-country perspective
European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research (EJTIR), 2021
We carried out an international online survey about changes in everyday mobility during the COVID-19 outbreak in 21 languages, collecting more than 11,000 responses from more than 100 countries. In this paper, we present our analysis about commuting travels of the responses between 23 March and 12 May 2020 from the fourteen countries with 100 or more responses, namely Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, and the UK. Home office is used typically by between 40% and 60% of working respondents. Among people with workplaces with possibility for home office, the percentage is between 60% and 80%. Among people with workplaces where presence is essential, the percentage does not typically go beyond 30%. This result potentially implies an ultimate magnitude of a strong home office measure. Among those who continued to commute but switched commuting transport modes from public transport to others, the COVID-19 infection risk in public transport is the reason that is most often referred to, but many of those who changed to private cars and to bicycles report reduced travel time, too. Measures to encourage the use of active travel modes where possible are strongly recommended, as this would potentially mitigate undesirable modal shift towards private motorized modes triggered by perception of infection risks while travelling with public transport.